Immigration deal faces amendment hazards

Immigration deal faces amendment hazards Current mood: hopeful Category: Life May 22, 2007, 12:28AM Immigration deal faces amendment hazards Both parties seek changes, including some from Hutchison By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday opened what's sure to be a bruising fight over immigration with many potential deal-killer amendments lurking in the weeds. Among them are a pair of amendments by Texas GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison that are sure to be opposed by Senate Democrats. The Democrats for their part also are seeking major changes that could threaten the bipartisan bargain, which was crafted by about a dozen senators who met in secret with two Bush Cabinet officers for nearly three months. And special interests ranging from high-tech employers to immigrant advocacy groups and labor unions have offered at best lukewarm support for the compromise, lobbying aggressively for major fixes on the Senate floor. On Monday, one of the nation's largest Hispanic groups, the League of United Latin American Citizens, announced its opposition. The White House and key senators were eager to finish the bill before Memorial Day. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., bowed Monday to lawmakers' demands for more time to read the bill. The decision pushes off a final vote until early June. Reid welcomed the bill as a "starting point" and said he hoped changes would be made. But the compromise's negotiators, including lead Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona, warned that any effort to move away from the deal's framework could doom the bill. The deal cleared a first hurdle Monday with a strong bipartisan vote to begin the debate. Only 23 senators, including Hutchison and fellow Texas Republican John Cornyn, voted not to proceed with the bill. "This bill has not even been written in legislative language, has not been approved through the committee process, and therefore cannot be vetted by the American people," Hutchison said. Texas senators speak out The two Texas senators participated in the marathon bargaining negotiations until walking away in the final hours. "While our efforts had a positive influence, we were not convinced the announced proposal guarantees repair of our current broken system," Hutchison and Cornyn said in a joint statement. "We are particularly concerned that we may be repeating the mistakes of the failed 1986 national amnesty." The Texans already are preparing their amendments, which are among the dozens likely to be filed in the coming days. They are taking aim at the most controversial aspect of the compromise: the legalization of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living here. Under the deal, most illegal immigrants here as of Jan. 1 would be eligible to apply for four-year "Z" visas, renewable indefinitely, to live, work and travel freely. Hutchison wants to ensure that the visa holders can't accrue Social Security benefits for the time they were in the country illegally. She also does not want them to be eligible for any long-term Social Security benefits. Instead, she wants them to receive a lump-sum payment of their Social Security withholdings when they return home. She also wants all illegal immigrants registering for the new visa to have to go back to their country to apply. Under the current deal, only those seeking green cards would be required to apply abroad — meaning that immigrants who have no desire to get on a path to citizenship could live here indefinitely without having to go home to file their paperwork. Democrats, who only reluctantly agreed to the return-home provision, are sure to object to its expansion to more immigrants. Cornyn's proposed amendments also are sure to raise concerns among Democrats, including one that would broaden the list of crimes making an illegal immigrant ineligible for legalization. Another Cornyn proposal would take direct aim at Democrats' insistence that the information shared with the government by illegal immigrants while they are seeking legal status remain confidential, and not be used by other government agencies. Absent confidentiality, Democrats say, illegal immigrants will not come forward to register. But Cornyn argues that a lack of information sharing will only lead to fraud in the legalization program. Democratic amendments Democrats are readying controversial amendments of their own, including one by Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota that would strip the guest worker program from the deal. Business is pressing for access to new foreign labor, and the temporary worker program would allow as many as 600,000 people yearly to come in and work on two-year visas. The temporary worker program is likely to be trimmed to 200,000 under an amendment to be offered by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. Other Democratic amendments would take aim at the agreement's emphasis on skills-based immigration, seeking to return to the near-total focus on reuniting families — and thus jeopardizing a hard-fought agreement between the GOP and Democratic senators. Also, many Democrats are tepid about Republicans' insistence that certain border security goals, including the construction of 370 miles of fencing, be met before any legalization or temporary worker program could begin. Senate leaders have yet to decide which amendments will be permitted. michelle.mittelstadt@chron.com 11:47 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

	"THE DEMON SLAYER"	I just heard on the news that the Democrats withdrew the withdrawal provision in the military spending bill. Maybe if the Republicans can hang tough on this amnesty bill maybe the Democrats will withdraw this too! Posted by "THE DEMON SLAYER" on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 6:53 PM [Reply to this]

Nevada Lights

Well here's what I thnk! I think if we didn't have all of this technology they would have been able to pull all of this over on us. But we are all communicating and dedicated to staying free that things aren't going so easy for them. WE HAVE TO DEFEND OURSELVES BY COMMUNICATING AND EDUCATING OTHERS !! Posted by Nevada Lights on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 7:18 PM [Reply to this]